Joe's Pond Ice is Out

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Created on Monday, 24 April 2017 15:30

Written by Brandon Walker

DANVILLE - The Joe's Pond Ice-Out contest finally came to an end this weekend. Emily Wiggett, a North Danville resident, won the contest as her guess was a mere minute earlier than the actual time that the contest ended. Wiggett guessed the ice would be out on Sunday, April 23rd at 4:31 PM and the actual recorded time was 4:32 PM on Sunday

Wiggett was surprised by her luck, "It was a surprise actually. I was in the car driving back, we had just got home from vacation, and I got this phone call from a number I didn't recognize and I decided to answer it. That was the call, it was pretty exciting." Wiggett, a first time competitor in the contest, won more than four thousand dollars with her guess.

The contest is based off of a clock that is attached to a cinder block on top of a pallet. The clock stops when it hits the water after the ice has given out.

The contest came to an end within the usual time frame that the ice tends to go out. Jane Brown, the Co-Chair person of the contest, said, "It's right in the ballpark. Anytime in April." This year was not abnormal by any means when it comes to other recorded dates of the contest. "No, this is just about a normal Ice-Out really. Last year it was a little earlier. Last year it went out on the 12th of April and 2014 and 2015 it went out on the 29th" Brown said.

Entries into the contest were slightly lower than the number from the previous year. This trend has been occurring for the past couple of years though. Brown said, "In 2015 we had a really big year. We had about 15,000 tickets sold. Last year it went down a little and this year it went down a little more." Brown estimates that around 11,000 tickets were sold in 2016 and that nearly 10,000 were sold this year. More information on the contest and past winners is available at joespondvermont.com.